Uh Oh! Too Early Spring

Oak flowers blooming 22 March 2012 (photo by Kate St. John)

23 March 2012

Welcome to Day 11 of June-in-March.  The heat feels nice, huh?  What could go wrong? As it turns out many things could go wrong.

Yesterday I found red oaks starting to bloom in Schenley Park a month ahead of schedule (photo above).  This should be happy but something is missing.  The rose-breasted grosbeaks aren’t here to eat them.

Long ago I learned from Chuck Tague that rose-breasted grosbeaks move north as the oaks bloom, perfectly timing their arrival to coincide with their favorite migration food — oak flowers.

Rose-breasted grosbeak (photo by Chuck Tague)

But right now the grosbeaks are in Central and South America, waiting to fly across the Gulf of Mexico to arrive in Pennsylvania in late April or early May.  They don’t know our oaks are blooming.  The flowers will be gone.

What will the rose-breasted grosbeaks do when they get here?

Uh oh!

(photo of oak flowers by Kate St. John. Photo of rose-breasted grosbeak by Chuck Tague)

10 thoughts on “Uh Oh! Too Early Spring

  1. Hi Kate – I was out at lunch and just saw what I believe was a red-tailed hawk soaring pretty low over St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Mellon Insitute on 5th. He/she had a beak full of twigs. What will this mean for the falcons? Can they coexist in the same territory?

    1. I’ve seen this too & have some cool photos from Peter Bell for the blog tomorrow … with some answers.

  2. Will grosbeaks eat from feeders? Maybe a movement to get backyard feeders in everyone’s yards needs to get started to offset the crazy weather.

    But look at the bright side, if a Republican wins the election, then we’ll have nothing to worry about because global warming doesn’t happen in their world. ; )

  3. Oh Steve.. love your comment!

    Seriously Kate, what will the grosbeaks do? do they eat anything else?

    1. They do eat from bird feeders. This effect will reward the grosbeaks who stay near people.

  4. This is just what I have been saying and people look at me like I’m crazy. What could be wrong–indeed. I’m not ready for a world as new and brave as this!

  5. Hi Kate!
    I just saw a male rose breasted grosbeak, for the first time, on a feeder in my back yard…(Franklin County, OH). I didn’t know what it was and looked it up as it ate from the feeder. So exciting!

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